All manner and variety of absorbent articles configured for the absorption of body fluids such as menses, urine, and feces are, of course, well known. Absorbent articles, particularly sanitary napkins, having wings or flaps are disclosed in the literature and are available in the marketplace.
Generally, the flaps extend laterally from a central absorbent means and are intended to be folded around the edges of the wearer's parities in the crotch region. Thus, the flaps are disposed between the edges of the wearer's panties in the crotch region and the wearer's thighs. Commonly, the flaps are provided with an attachment means for affixing the flaps to the underside of the wearer's parities.
The flaps serve at least two purposes. First, the flaps prevent exudates which otherwise would soil the edges of the wearer's panties from doing such. Second, the flaps help stabilize the napkin from shifting out of place, especially when the flaps are affixed to the underside of the panties.
Sanitary napkins having flaps of the various types are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,687,478, entitled "Shaped Sanitary Napkin With Flaps", which issued to Van Tilburg on Aug. 18, 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,047, entitled "Sanitary Napkin Attachment Means", which issued to Mattingly on Aug. 26, 1986, U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,876, entitled "Sanitary Napkin", which issued to Van Tilburg on May 20, 1986, U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,343, entitled "Sanitary Napkin", which issued to McNair on Aug. 25, 1981, U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,697, entitled "Disposable Sanitary Shield For Undergarments", which issued to Rickard on Aug. 20, 1968, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,787,271, entitled "Sanitary Napkin", which issued to Clark on Apr. 2, 1957.
While sanitary napkins having flaps are commonly viewed as providing better protection against soiling as compared to sanitary napkins without flaps, the flapped napkins commonly experience problems that keep them from being optimally effective. These problems generally result from the stresses exerted on such flaps when the sanitary napkins are worn.
When the flaps are folded down along the edges of the wearer's panties, stresses are created in the flaps. The stresses are especially high along the fold line at the edges of the wearer's panties where the flaps are bent from the bodyside of the panty to the underside of the panty. These stresses are caused by fitting a flap around the curved outline of a panty crotch. These stresses are magnified when a wearer sits or crouches because the edges of the panties are pulled outward against the flaps thus increasing the forces against this fold line. When the stresses become too high, the flaps may become detached from the panty and some portion of the aforementioned benefits of the flaps may be lost. In addition, even if the stresses are not sufficient to detach the flaps, they may still be sufficient to cause the flaps to bunch longitudinally inward. This effectively reduces the size of the flaps and the area of the wearer's undergarments that the flaps are able to cover. Thus, there is a commercial need for a way of eliminating or at least reducing the stresses that develop in the flaps when folded, so as to prevent them from becoming detached from the wearer's panties and losing ability to cover a given area of the panties.
A number of variations on the types of flaps described above have been presented in an attempt to solve various problems. U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,320 issued to McCoy on Feb. 13, 1990, discloses a sanitary napkin having flaps affixed at points inward from the longitudinal edge of the napkin. U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,701 issued to Mavinkurve on Ma. 27, 1990 discloses a sanitary napkin having elastic means for providing greater convex shape to the body-facing portion of the central absorbent and for enabling adhesive-free placement of the flaps of the napkin. U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,462 issued to Salerno on Jul. 10, 1990, discloses a sanitary napkin with longitudinally expandable flaps. A sanitary napkin having flaps with stress relief means in the form of a notch or a slit is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,917,697 which issued to Osborn, III, et al. on Apr. 17, 1990. Although this latter sanitary napkin works quite well, the search for sanitary napkins having improved flaps has continued.
The stresses described above can also unduly limit the size of the flaps used with an absorbent article since the stresses are typically greater in products having large flaps (that is flaps having a relatively large longitudinal dimension). There is, thus, also a need for an improved stress relief means for relieving the stresses that develop in the flaps, that does not limit the size of the flaps that can be used.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article, such as a sanitary napkin, having flaps that are pleated to provide zones of differential extensibility for relieving the stresses that develop in the flaps when they are folded down along the edges of the crotch of the wearer's undergarments and affixed to the underside of the undergarments.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article having flaps that are pleated to provide zones of differential extensibility that allow larger flaps to be used on the absorbent article, than those of prior products.
These and other objects of the present invention will be more readily apparent when considered in reference to the following description and when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.